The 3 May 2001 meeting of
the SBMS will have Bill, WA6QYR talk about the 2 GHz transverter he
build from the excess 2 GHz band parts that Dick, WB6DNX collected in
1998 and passed on to the membership. More on those hardware items is
found in this newsletter. The SBMS meets at the American Legion Hall
1024 Main Street (south of the 91 freeway) in Corona, CA at 1900
hours local time on the first Thursday of each month. Check out the
SBMS web site at http://www.ham-radio.com/sbms/.

Last meeting Mel, WA6JBD talked about the radio path he worked on
and had data sheets to show what happened. A write-up is found
elsewhere in this edition. Thanks Mel for a good talk. Welcome to
visitor Hon Chu, KQ6EE of Arcadia. Welcome to new member Randy Fear,
KC6JTN who has 10 GHz hardware on the air. 20 people present.

Prez Sez-Well, it's about time to "shoot the engineer" again. Just
a reminder for your projects:

1. Do the antennas last and the phase locked loop first. Horns
will get you on the air, are simple to use and QUICK. DC wiring and
packaging take much more time than one would assume.

2. Don't freeze your project on some detail. Get it working and
then pretty it up. Work around or simplify the things that are
freezing you up.

3. Don't work alone. We are a club and there are plenty of people
out there willing to help. Call me or someone else to help you out of
a problem or for testing. (See above for phone numbers and email. Ed)

4. The contest is in Aug. and Sept.- however the Get Ready session
is in late July. Plan to be ready by the first of July.

5. If you have all your stuff neatly stored since last year and
you are sure no one and nothing has touched any part of it, now is
the time to pull it out and see what the Menehunies, Nunchkins, or
Nissen have been doing all these months to your rig(s). It is also
the time to put in those extra touches you didn't have time for last
year. I know you don't have time to do it, but it doesn't work well
as an excuse when you are on top of Frazer, Heaps or even Signal Hill
without a soldering iron or signal generator.

GET IN CONTACT-So that we can get an idea of who is doing what,
and pair people up if they like. Please email me if you are working
on one of the following stations, what stage you are in, and let me
know if you want to get in contact with other people working on the
same frequencies. 24 GHz wide band

24 GHz narrow band, 47 GHz wide or narrow. Higher? If you are
working on another mode or band and want to find someone to work
with, let me know also. You can also put a blurb in the newsletter
via Bill, WA6QYR, to let people know what you are doing.

Activity reported at the 5 April SBMS
meeting: Dick, WB6DNX was working with the filters on the newest
Qualcomm 10 GHz rig, Larry, K6HLH built a box for tower mount
preamps; Hon Chu, KQ6EE is visiting; George, K6MBL had his 1956 car
call license plates to show; Dick, K6HIJ got some test equipment
operating; Kurt, K6RRA made some 10 GHz contacts; Mel, WA6JBD cleaned
his garage and carried in some 2 GHz system parts to the meeting and
worked on his tech talk; Jeff, KN6VR got some preamps working; Bob,
W6SYA reassembled his 10 GHz rig; Ken, WB6DTA put up some antennas
for 900 MHz , 2.3, and 3 GHz; Ed, K6ODV changed out some coax going
to his tower; Bill, WA6QYR worked on his 2 GHz transverter; Chuck,
WA6EXV did some 24 GHz testing, built a slot antenna for the 2 GHz
beacon, and is testing the beacon; Frank, WB6CWN is planning some
summer outings;

The Mt. Vaca (CM88WJ) 10 GHz Beacon operating on 10,368.325 MHz
was removed from the site yesterday 3/29/01 for maintenance and
upgrades. It is expected to be off the air temporarily for several
months. Jim...W6ASL

From the ARRL: We do have available the 2000 Microwave Update,
order #MU00, $20.00 plus

$5.00 for shipping. You can order with your credit card through
email, fax 860-594-0303, call toll free 888-277-5289 or through our
web page at www.arrl.org. Any further questions, please let me know.

Sincerely, Lisa Tardette Pub. Sales - thanks Frank, WB6CWN

It appears that Qualcomm has discontinued manufacturing the
3036/3236 type PLL many of us are using for our microwave LOs (we
still have many boards with the original ICs). Peregrine is offering
drop in replacements with a 2.2 GHz and 3 GHz upper frequency limit
and 30 milliamps current consumption at 3V. They claim lower phase
noise, which I hope to checkout when I can get a device & mount
it on a board. This might make a nice improvement all the way around
if one is set up to replace such an IC.

their website quotes the P3236 2 GHz version) at $25 and the P3336
(3 GHz version) at $27 in small quantities. - Kerry N6IZW &endash;

At the April meeting of the SBMS Mel, WA6JBD (shown on the right)
spoke about his work at the Riverside County Communications group
with a link within the county which had problems with signal drop
out. The original analog 2 GHz link was installed in 1956 over the
16.4-mile path between Box Springs Mountain and Mount David. It never
had problems with drop out. With technology upgrades over the years
and the move to a digital system in 1990, the system continued to
have more and more problems with increasing drop out time. This was a
single dual direction path with hot back up hardware. The county then
went to a space diversity system with two 8 ft antenna spaced some 60
ft apart up and down on the tower at each end of the path later in
1990. Problems still persisted. Path prediction software indicated no
Fresnel interference. In 1993 they moved to 15 ft antennas with an up
tilt to attempt to reduce any ground reflections. That solved most of
the problems. With the 1997 FCC changes in frequency allocations, the
new PCS owners of the 2 GHz band purchased 6 GHz hardware for the
problem link. The "new" system has 30 ft space diversity with 8 ft
antennas, plus angle diversity, antenna feeds that allow squinting of
the beam with sum and difference pattern selections, and a transmit
power AGC. Since 1998 the link hasn't lost signal. It was suspected
that there was a combination of long delayed ground bounce
interference and a sky path that would some time induce additional
reflections. Now 911 and other county communications on the network
are stable.

Some notes from testing done by Bill, WA6QYR and Chuck, WA6EXV on
Farinon/ Harris surplus 2 GHz parts in 1998 that were used in Bill's
2 GHz transverter shown at the April meeting and the talk to be given
at the May meeting:

2 GHz linear power amps SD-106405 &endash; only the front half of
the unit works at 2.3 GHz. Cut off the back half and add a SMA.
Generally the front half has about 20 dB gain with max +19 dBm
output. +12 v input at about 40 ma.

RF Hybrid (splitter) SD-105117 just a 3 dB resistive divider.

KDI Mixer 64537 just a mixer needing about 7 dBm LO.

LO "microwave brick"- need to change the crystal to 108 MHz for
2160 MHz LO. It has lots of 108 MHz crystal signal in the output so
need to filter it out some where in your system. Schematics else
where in this newsletter.

2 GHz Power amp 076-106935 is a one-watt device, but I wasn't able
to get enough drive to make it play properly. &endash;20v at 1.6 amp.
Some where in the 10 dB gain level.

Dual 5-cavity filter SD-105370- need to remove 0.050 inches of
material from each post to tune into 2.3 GHz. Has about 20 MHz
bandwidth with lots of rejection out side the pass band. About 1-2 dB
insertion loss. Chuck, WA6EXV cut all the filters that were available
and he and Bill retuned them into the 2.3 GHz band before they were
passed out at the SBMS meetings.

Single 5-cavity filter SD-106312, same as above.

Bill, WA6QYR's 2 GHz transverter made from old Farinon 2 GHz parts
as shown at the April and May SBMS meetings. San Bernardino Microwave
Society is a technical amateur radio club affiliated with the ARRL
having a membership of over 90 amateurs from Hawaii and Alaska to the
east coast. Dues are $15 per year which includes a badge and monthly
newsletter. Your mail label indicates your call followed by when your
dues are due. Dues can be sent to the treasurer as listed under the
banner on the front page. If you have material you would like in the
newsletter please send it to Bill WA6QYR at 247 Rebel Road
Ridgecrest, CA 93555, bburns@ridgecrest.ca.us, or phone 760-375-8566.
The newsletter is generated about the 15th of the month and put into
the mail at least the week prior to the meeting. This is your
newsletter. SBMS Newsletter material can be copied as long as SBMS is
identified as source.